IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/ormnsc/v68y2022i8p5618-5643.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do Board Gender Quotas Matter? Selection, Performance, and Stock Market Effects

Author

Listed:
  • Giulia Ferrari

    (Department of Statistical Methods, INED, Institut National d’Études Démographiques, 93322 Aubervilliers Cedex, France)

  • Valeria Ferraro

    (Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts 02467)

  • Paola Profeta

    (Department of Social and Political Science, Bocconi University, 20136 Milan, Italy; Axa Research Lab on Gender Equality, Bocconi University, 20136 Milan, Italy)

  • Chiara Pronzato

    (University of Turin, 10124 Turin, Italy; Collegio Carlo Alberto, 10122 Turin, Italy)

Abstract

From business to politics and academia, the economic effects of gender quotas are under scrutiny. We provide new causal evidence based on the introduction of mandatory gender quotas for boards of directors of Italian listed companies. Exploiting staggered board elections, we find that quotas are associated with a new selection of board members, characterized by higher education and lower age, and no significant costs on firm performance or the stock market.

Suggested Citation

  • Giulia Ferrari & Valeria Ferraro & Paola Profeta & Chiara Pronzato, 2022. "Do Board Gender Quotas Matter? Selection, Performance, and Stock Market Effects," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(8), pages 5618-5643, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:68:y:2022:i:8:p:5618-5643
    DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2021.4200
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2021.4200
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/mnsc.2021.4200?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lori Beaman & Raghabendra Chattopadhyay & Esther Duflo & Rohini Pande & Petia Topalova, 2009. "Powerful Women: Does Exposure Reduce Bias?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 124(4), pages 1497-1540.
    2. N. Bloom, 2016. "Fluctuations in uncertainty," Voprosy Ekonomiki, NP Voprosy Ekonomiki, issue 4.
    3. Nygaard, Knut, 2011. "Forced board changes: Evidence from Norway," Discussion Paper Series in Economics 5/2011, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Economics.
    4. Adams, Renée B. & Ferreira, Daniel, 2009. "Women in the boardroom and their impact on governance and performance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(2), pages 291-309, November.
    5. Bertrand, Marianne, 2011. "New Perspectives on Gender," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 17, pages 1543-1590, Elsevier.
    6. Manuel Bagues & Mauro Sylos-Labini & Natalia Zinovyeva, 2017. "Does the Gender Composition of Scientific Committees Matter?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(4), pages 1207-1238, April.
    7. Kenneth R. Ahern & Amy K. Dittmar, 2012. "The Changing of the Boards: The Impact on Firm Valuation of Mandated Female Board Representation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 127(1), pages 137-197.
    8. Giannetti, Mariassunta & Zhao, Mengxin, 2016. "Board Diversity and Firm Performance Volatility," CEPR Discussion Papers 11155, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    9. Marianne Bertrand & Sandra E Black & Sissel Jensen & Adriana Lleras-Muney, 2019. "Breaking the Glass Ceiling? The Effect of Board Quotas on Female Labour Market Outcomes in Norway," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 86(1), pages 191-239.
    10. David A. Matsa & Amalia R. Miller, 2013. "A Female Style in Corporate Leadership? Evidence from Quotas," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 5(3), pages 136-169, July.
    11. Baltrunaite, Audinga & Bello, Piera & Casarico, Alessandra & Profeta, Paola, 2014. "Gender quotas and the quality of politicians," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 62-74.
    12. O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), 2011. "Handbook of Labor Economics," Handbook of Labor Economics, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 4, number 4.
    13. Schwartz-Ziv, Miriam, 2017. "Gender and Board Activeness: The Role of a Critical Mass," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 52(2), pages 751-780, April.
    14. Seierstad, Cathrine & Opsahl, Tore, 2011. "For the few not the many? The effects of affirmative action on presence, prominence, and social capital of women directors in Norway," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 44-54, March.
    15. O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), 2011. "Handbook of Labor Economics," Handbook of Labor Economics, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 4, number 5.
    16. Galasso, Vincenzo & Nannicini, Tommaso, 2011. "Competing on Good Politicians," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 105(1), pages 79-99, February.
    17. Sander Hoogendoorn & Hessel Oosterbeek & Mirjam van Praag, 2013. "The Impact of Gender Diversity on the Performance of Business Teams: Evidence from a Field Experiment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 59(7), pages 1514-1528, July.
    18. Larelle Chapple & Jacquelyn Humphrey, 2014. "Does Board Gender Diversity Have a Financial Impact? Evidence Using Stock Portfolio Performance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 122(4), pages 709-723, July.
    19. Timothy Besley & Olle Folke & Torsten Persson & Johanna Rickne, 2017. "Gender Quotas and the Crisis of the Mediocre Man: Theory and Evidence from Sweden," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(8), pages 2204-2242, August.
    20. Mario Daniele Amore & Orsola Garofalo & Alessandro Minichilli, 2014. "Gender Interactions Within the Family Firm," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(5), pages 1083-1097, May.
    21. Sunden, Annika E & Surette, Brian J, 1998. "Gender Differences in the Allocation of Assets in Retirement Savings Plans," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(2), pages 207-211, May.
    22. Manuel F. Bagues & Berta Esteve-Volart, 2010. "Can Gender Parity Break the Glass Ceiling? Evidence from a Repeated Randomized Experiment," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 77(4), pages 1301-1328.
    23. Renée B. Adams & Patricia Funk, 2012. "Beyond the Glass Ceiling: Does Gender Matter?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(2), pages 219-235, February.
    24. Peggy M. Lee & Erika Hayes James, 2007. "She'‐e‐os: gender effects and investor reactions to the announcements of top executive appointments," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(3), pages 227-241, March.
    25. Luca Flabbi & Mario Macis & Andrea Moro & Fabiano Schivardi, 2019. "Do Female Executives Make a Difference? The Impact of Female Leadership on Gender Gaps and Firm Performance," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 129(622), pages 2390-2423.
    26. Chang‐Tai Hsieh & Erik Hurst & Charles I. Jones & Peter J. Klenow, 2019. "The Allocation of Talent and U.S. Economic Growth," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 87(5), pages 1439-1474, September.
    27. Nicholas van der Walt & Coral Ingley, 2003. "Board Dynamics and the Influence of Professional Background, Gender and Ethnic Diversity of Directors," Corporate Governance: An International Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(3), pages 218-234, July.
    28. Audinga Baltrunaite & Alessandra Casarico & Paola Profeta, 2015. "Editor's Choice Affirmative Action and the Power of the Elderly," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 61(1), pages 148-164.
    29. Gagliarducci, Stefano & Paserman, M. Daniele, 2014. "The Effect of Female Leadership on Establishment and Employee Outcomes: Evidence from Linked Employer-Employee Data," IZA Discussion Papers 8647, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    30. Raghabendra Chattopadhyay & Esther Duflo, 2004. "Women as Policy Makers: Evidence from a Randomized Policy Experiment in India," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 72(5), pages 1409-1443, September.
    31. Harry J. Holzer & David Neumark, 2006. "Affirmative action: What do we know?," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(2), pages 463-490.
    32. Caspar Rose, 2007. "Does female board representation influence firm performance? The Danish evidence," Corporate Governance: An International Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(2), pages 404-413, March.
    33. Giannetti, Mariassunta & Zhao, Mengxin, 2019. "Board Ancestral Diversity and Firm-Performance Volatility," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 54(3), pages 1117-1155, June.
    34. Bøhren, Øyvind & Staubo, Siv, 2014. "Does mandatory gender balance work? Changing organizational form to avoid board upheaval," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 152-168.
    35. Mingzhu Wang & Elisabeth Kelan, 2013. "The Gender Quota and Female Leadership: Effects of the Norwegian Gender Quota on Board Chairs and CEOs," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 117(3), pages 449-466, October.
    36. Fabrizio Rossi & Richard J. Cebula, 2015. "Stock market reactions to announcements of the board of directors: evidence from Italy," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(20), pages 2102-2118, April.
    37. Raquel Fernández & Alessandra Fogli & Claudia Olivetti, 2004. "Mothers and Sons: Preference Formation and Female Labor Force Dynamics," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(4), pages 1249-1299.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Antoine Rebérioux & Gwenaël Roudaut, 2019. "The Role of Rookie Female Directors in a Post‐Quota Period: Gender Inequalities within French Boards," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(3), pages 423-483, July.
    2. Alessandra Casarico & Salvatore Lattanzio, 2024. "What Firms Do: Gender Inequality in Linked Employer-Employee Data," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 42(2), pages 325-355.
    3. Nina Smith, 2018. "Gender quotas on boards of directors," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 1-10, December.
    4. Barbara Pistoresi & Erica Poma & Alberto Rinaldi, 2022. "Gender quota on corporate boards in Italy: spillover effects and financial performance," Department of Economics 0208, University of Modena and Reggio E., Faculty of Economics "Marco Biagi".
    5. Alkhawaja, Abdallah & Hu, Fang & Johl, Shireenjit & Nadarajah, Sivathaasan, 2023. "Board gender diversity, quotas, and ESG disclosure: Global evidence," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    6. Joanna Tyrowicz & Hubert Drazkowski, 2024. "Gender tokenism in corporate boardrooms in Europe," GRAPE Working Papers 97, GRAPE Group for Research in Applied Economics.
    7. Alexandra Fedorets & Anna Gibert & Norma Burow, 2019. "Gender Quotas in the Boardroom: New Evidence from Germany," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1810, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    8. Alexandra Fedorets & Anna Gibert, 2022. "Lifting Women Up: Gender Quotas and the Advancement of Women on Corporate Boards," Working Papers 1370, Barcelona School of Economics.
    9. Alessandra Michelangeli & Umut Türk, 2019. "Cities as drivers of social mobility," Working Papers 397, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised Jan 2019.
    10. Cao, Zhiyan & Upadhyay, Arun & Zeng, Hongchao, 2024. "Are all female directors equal? Incentives and effectiveness of female independent directors," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    11. Filandri, Marianna & Pasqua, Silvia & Priori, Eleonora, 2023. "Breaking through the glass ceiling. Simulating policies to close the gender gap in the Italian academia," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    12. Helene Maghin, 2022. "Cracks in the Boards: The Opportunity Cost of Governance Homogeneity," CESifo Working Paper Series 9816, CESifo.
    13. Silvia Del Prete & Maria Lucia Stefani, 2021. "Women as “gold dust”: Gender diversity in top boards and the performance of Italian banks," Economic Notes, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA, vol. 50(2), July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chiara Pronzato & Paola Profeta & Valeria Ferraro & Giulia Ferrari, 2016. "Gender Quotas: Challenging the Boards, Performance, and the Stock Market," Working Papers id:11411, eSocialSciences.
    2. Del Prete, Silvia & Papini, Giulio & Tonello, Marco, 2024. "Gender quotas, board diversity and spillover effects. Evidence from Italian banks," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 221(C), pages 148-173.
    3. Antoine Rebérioux & Gwenaël Roudaut, 2016. "Gender Quota inside the Boardroom: Female Directors as New Key Players?," Working Papers hal-01297884, HAL.
    4. Donato Masciandaro & Paola Profeta & Davide Romelli, 2020. "Do Women Matter in Monetary Policy Boards?," BAFFI CAREFIN Working Papers 20148, BAFFI CAREFIN, Centre for Applied Research on International Markets Banking Finance and Regulation, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.
    5. Paul B. McGuinness & João Paulo Vieito & Mingzhu Wang, 2020. "Proactive government intervention, board gender balance, and stakeholder engagement in China and Europe," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 37(3), pages 719-762, September.
    6. Thomas Le & Julien Sauvagnat, 2022. "Electoral Competition, Voter Bias, and Women in Politics," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 20(1), pages 352-394.
    7. Ferreira, Daniel & Ginglinger, Edith & Laguna, Marie-Aude & Skalli, Yasmine, 2017. "Board Quotas and Director-Firm Matching," CEPR Discussion Papers 12117, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    8. Joanna Tyrowicz & Siri Terjesen & Jakub Mazurek, 2017. "All on board? New evidence on board gender diversity from a large panel of firms," GRAPE Working Papers 5, GRAPE Group for Research in Applied Economics.
    9. Francesco Devicienti & Elena Grinza & Alessandro Manello & Davide Vannoni, 2016. "Which Are the Benefits of Having more Female Leaders? Evidence from the Use of Part-Time Work in Italy," Carlo Alberto Notebooks 489, Collegio Carlo Alberto.
    10. Pipke, David & Pönitzsch, Gert, 2015. "Effekte der Frauenquote in Aufsichtsräten: Ein Ausblick für Deutschland," Kiel Policy Brief 93, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    11. Agata Maida & Andrea Weber, 2022. "Female Leadership and Gender Gap within Firms: Evidence from an Italian Board Reform," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 75(2), pages 488-515, March.
    12. Cécile Casteuble & Laetitia Lepetit & Thu Tha Tran, 2019. "Women on boards: do quotas affect firm performance?," Working Papers hal-02385034, HAL.
    13. Ding, Rong & Duan, Tinghua & Hou, Wenxuan & Liu, Xianda & Xu, Ziwei, 2022. "Do women drive corporate social responsibility? Evidence from gender diversity reforms around the world," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    14. Paola Profeta & Eleanor Woodhouse, 2018. "Do Electoral Rules Matter for Female Representation?," Working Papers 121, "Carlo F. Dondena" Centre for Research on Social Dynamics (DONDENA), Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi.
    15. Azmat, Ghazala & Petrongolo, Barbara, 2014. "Gender and the labor market: What have we learned from field and lab experiments?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 32-40.
    16. Marianne Bertrand & Esther Duflo, 2016. "Field Experiments on Discrimination," NBER Working Papers 22014, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Mobbs, Shawn & Tan, Yongxian & Zhang, Shage, 2021. "Female directors: Why are some less informed than others?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    18. Kuzmina, Olga & Melentyeva, Valentina, 2020. "Gender diversity in corporate boards: Evidence from quota-implied discontinuities," CEPR Discussion Papers 14942, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    19. Garanina, Tatiana & Muravyev, Alexander, 2021. "The gender composition of corporate boards and firm performance: Evidence from Russia," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(C).
    20. Sanjukta Brahma & Chioma Nwafor & Agyenim Boateng, 2021. "Board gender diversity and firm performance: The UK evidence," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(4), pages 5704-5719, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    education; age; financial markets;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J20 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - General
    • J48 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Particular Labor Markets; Public Policy
    • J78 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Public Policy (including comparable worth)

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:68:y:2022:i:8:p:5618-5643. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.